Gu Shaoyu saw that the people were all running towards a general store, and on a whim, he followed them.
On Dongcheng Commercial Street, there is a long-established general store with only one storefront.
The place was filled with a dazzling array of goods, and on the opposite side, where the carriages used to be parked, there were piles of saltpeter.
Saltpeter was originally priced at five taels for one hundred catties, but a servant stood at the door and called out, "Saltpeter, one hundred catties for twenty-five taels of silver."
The price has increased fivefold.
The strange thing is that even though the price of saltpeter had increased fivefold, everyone was scrambling to buy it!
Instead of paying for the goods at the door, customers would enter the shop, pay inside, and exchange the money for a voucher to pick up their goods at the roadside.
It's obvious that the goods were brought in temporarily, not even put into storage, and were picked up directly from the roadside.
This business is so successful that they even save on warehousing fees.
Gu Shaoyu and Nanxing watched from the sidelines as everyone sold their loads of saltpeter in half a day, leaving the piles in the open space completely sold out.
Many people crowded around the shop, asking, "Do you have any coupons left? Can you sell us some more?"
The other party said impatiently, "That's all for today. We'll open tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM and more will be delivered. Everyone, just wait."
Even the genius Grand Secretary Gu couldn't understand it.
Besides its usual medicinal uses, he remembered that Tu Qianyue used saltpeter to make ice. Could it have other uses as well?
He watched as a young man bought a cart full of saltpeter, and, as if he had just won a gold nugget, he politely asked, "Young man, what are you buying saltpeter for?"
The young man glanced at him and said with a grin, "Of course it works!"
What's the use?
They don't say it.
Something unusual must be going on! He said to Nanxing, "Come over tomorrow at 9:00 AM and buy 100 jin (50 kg) to see what they're up to."
No sooner had they left than the grocery store started selling tickets again, saying that the owner had gotten another batch of goods.
"Only one batch today, once it's sold out, we won't sell anymore."
One hundred catties and twenty-five ounces, grab it!
The next day, Gu Shaoyu went to court early in the morning. Before His Majesty arrived at the court, everyone was whispering among themselves in the waiting area.
Gu Shaoyu listened for a while and heard the words "saltpeter" and "ice making".
"What are you talking about?" he asked gently.
When everyone saw it was him, they all smiled and said, "Several general stores are consigning saltpeter, starting at 100 catties. Anyone who buys more than 200 catties will receive a secret recipe for making ice."
"My wife had the housekeeper buy several hundred kilograms of ice yesterday and got the recipe. The ice was made last night, and oh my, it froze in the middle of the night. It's so refreshing."
"Yes, yes, I bought several hundred catties at my residence as well."
...
Gu Shaoyu then understood why those people went in to pay and get a delivery slip. He had originally thought it was for easier management, but it turned out there was a secret operation involving giving away formulas.
No wonder the guy was unwilling to tell him when he asked him yesterday.
He mentally calculated that there was probably more saltpeter than the entire capital city used to have.
Do you know where those saltpeter stones came from?
"It seems to have been brought from Tibet by Prince Jing's caravan."
"The prince's fleet brought a ship full of saltpeter this time, and I heard that it was all booked as soon as it landed."
The saltpeter came from Tibet, the recipe also came from Tibet, and it was also imported through legitimate channels.
Everything was flawless.
Nanxing, who had been instructed to buy 100 jin of saltpeter, was currently squeezing into the grocery store to buy tickets.
When it came time to pay, the person receiving the payment said, "Young man, why don't you buy two hundred jin? If you buy two hundred jin, we'll give you the secret recipe for making ice. If you buy more, we'll also give you ice product recipes."
Nanxing hesitated for a moment, then the person next to him immediately pushed him aside: "I'll do it."
The man paid one hundred taels of silver, took four small cards and a secret recipe, received four hundred catties of saltpeter, and left happily.
Before long, a voice came from the shop: "No need to queue anymore, all the saltpeter is sold out."
Nanxing quickly bought the last two hundred catties and also got a secret recipe. When he came out of the shop, he saw a luxurious carriage in the distance with four guards standing imposingly.
Xie Zhaozhao's servants, Mo Yan and Guan Yan, also came in to make purchases.
"The inkstone is out of saltpeter," Nanxing kindly reminded him.
Mo Yan said happily, "I paid a deposit in advance, and they delivered the goods to my door. I'm here to settle the balance."
Xie Zhaozhao did not get out of the carriage. She spoke a few words to Nanxing through the curtain before returning to the mansion with the servants.
What Nanxing didn't know was that when Moyan and Guanyan went in, one was doing the accounting and the other was responsible for blocking the crowd behind them.
He handed over silver notes, and what he got back... was even more silver notes!
After returning to his residence from court, Gu Shaoyu looked at the saltpeter and ice-making recipe that Nanxing had bought. The words on the recipe were engraved from a template, and the printing was somewhat blurry.
Even if he's incredibly smart, he can't figure out whose handwriting it is.
He asked Nanxing to conduct an experiment in a wooden barrel; the recipe was real, and it really could make ice.
Overnight, as he touched the hardened ice, he knew that Gu Chengyan and Tu Qianyue's plan to turn their fortunes around by making ice had been completely thwarted.
There are at least several hundred, if not ten thousand, families in the city that know how to make ice, and there are also wealthy and powerful families among them.
For example, the Xie family has mastered the secret recipe for making ice. They have plenty of money and shops. Even ten thousand Gu Chengyans and Tu Qianyues couldn't compete with them.
Soon, vendors selling ice products appeared on the streets, and their exquisite shaved ice and popsicles sold like hotcakes.
It is said that the families in the capital who obtained the secret recipe searched everywhere for saltpeter, collecting saltpeter from within a 500-mile radius of the capital, even at five or ten times the price.
Prince Jing's transport ships urgently went to Tibet and other countries to import saltpeter, which would take two or three months. By then, the weather would have been cold, and those who had saltpeter on hand had made a fortune.
On the day the saltpeter ran out, Yuanyuan's cousin sent several cartloads of saltpeter to the Xie family.
At the same time, he gave a box to Xie Zhaozhao.
That was the money from selling saltpeter, totaling over 62,000 taels. After deducting costs, we made a net profit of over 50,000 taels.
Xie Zhaozhao took out five thousand taels and gave them to Dong Qin, instructing him to distribute rewards and gifts to all those who had helped him.
If there are no benefits, who will work for you?
Dong Qin resolutely refused, saying, "These were all Miss's ideas. I was just a messenger and didn't do anything. What Miss gave us is already a fortune that we couldn't earn in several lifetimes."
Xie Zhaozhao insisted on giving it to him, saying, "Dongqin, take over those three shops under the overpass and put them in your own name. They are prime locations; you can rent them out or pass them on to your children or grandchildren, it's all good. Also, you should temporarily leave the capital and go to Baiyue."
Dong Qin was taken aback: "Miss, are you telling me to leave the capital forever?"
After all, he had offended Grand Secretary Gu and the Crown Prince, so it was hard to guarantee that the matter wouldn't be traced back to him.
"No, I have a big plan in Baiyue," Xie Zhaozhao said with a smile. "Dongqin, don't you want to go back to your hometown to take revenge?"
Upon hearing this, Dong Qin was stunned for a moment, then knelt down with a thud: "Thank you, Miss."
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